Ivanka Trump Agrees to Take Coronavirus Vaccine

Ivanka Trump Agrees to Take Coronavirus Vaccine
Ivanka Trump, daughter of U.S. President Donald Trump and White House adviser, addresses attendees as Trump prepares to deliver his acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination on the South Lawn of the White House on Aug. 27, 2020. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Katabella Roberts
9/11/2020
Updated:
9/11/2020
President Donald Trump’s daughter and White House advisor, Ivanka Trump, said she is willing to appear on “The View“ talk show and take a coronavirus vaccination on-air after co-host Joy Behar expressed skepticism over the progress of vaccine development being overseen by the Trump administration’s FDA.

On Wednesday, Behar said she doubted the president’s claims that a COVID-19 vaccine could be ready soon, adding that she would take the vaccine once Ivanka Trump did.

“[Developing vaccines] is not a simple thing to do,” Behar said. “He [Donald Trump] will push anything to get reelected. Don’t fall for it. And by the way, I will take the vaccine after Ivanka takes it.”

Following Behar’s remarks, Ivanka accepted the challenge in a post on Twitter.

“I would come on your show to do so,” she said. “I trust the FDA and so should all Americans. Vanquishing this virus should be our collective top priority.”

During Wednesday’s show, Behar accused the president of rushing his administration and the health sector to produce a vaccine, saying he was only doing so to be reelected in November. She noted that past vaccine developments took years to make an effective and safe.

“As far as the vaccine is concerned, I’d like to inform America—in case we don’t know this because I looked all this up for you—the mumps vaccine took four years, the polio vaccine took 20 years, and the smallpox vaccine took a few centuries,” she said.
“It was developed initially in 1796, when they started to think about it, and it became useful in the 1950s, OK?” she said, referring to the smallpox vaccine. “It is not a simple thing to do.”
Speaking at a White House press conference on Monday, President Trump touted his administration’s “Operation Warp Speed” program, a public-private sector partnership that he announced in May in a whole-of-government effort to speed up the production of a vaccine against the novel coronavirus.

The president told reporters that a vaccine would be available “very soon,” and “maybe even before a very special date,” suggesting it could happen before election day.

“Under my leadership, we’ll produce a vaccine in record time,” he said. “The vaccine will be very safe and very effective and it will be delivered very soon. Now, you could have a very big surprise coming up. I’m sure you’ll be very happy but the people will be happy, the people of the world will be happy.”

“It could be during the month of October actually, it could before November,” he said, adding, “We want to save a lot of lives ... the most important things to me is saving lives.”